Chick Flicks

For the last two years during the month of April, we've shared photos of the red-tailed hawk chicks and great horned owl chicks in nests within the Preserve's Core Habitat (an area that is off-limits to the public to provide a refuge for wildlife). This year, with our new digital video camera, we now have some short videos to share!

The first video is of the three red-tailed hawk chicks with their mother - after she stops looking annoyingly at me (even though I'm several hundred feet away!) she continues to feed her chicks. Keep an eye out for the two chicks in the back that appear to be fighting over the leg of some unknown small animal that is now their lunch. The second video is of three great horned owl chicks and their mother - toward the end of this video, the mother moves away from the chicks, and two of them try to awkwardly follow her.

As you will see, the owl chicks are much larger than the hawk chicks, and are closer to the size of their mother, whereas the red-tailed hawk chicks are still very small. That is because great horned owls often lay their eggs earlier than other raptors, which means they hatch sooner, so they are more developed at this point in time than the hawk chicks, which likely only hatched a few weeks ago. The great horned owl chicks will soon be losing their fluffy white feathers, looking more like mom and dad, and start walking out onto the branches of their nest tree. Hopefully more videos to come!

MORE CHICKS!!!

Last April I posted photos of red-tailed hawk chicks. This year, I’m sharing photos of great horned owl chicks. As you can see, these chicks are already very big – almost as big as their parents – which means they are probably getting ready to leave the nest soon.

Great horned owls are one of the earliest breeding raptors, sometimes laying eggs as early as late December or early January. The eggs hatch after about one month of incubation, and then the chicks generally start to wander from the nest onto nearby branches (which is why they are called “branchlings” at this stage) anywhere from 6 to 7 weeks of age, and start flying around at about 10 to 12 weeks.

Great horned owls generally don’t build their own nest, but rather take over an old nest from another bird species, such as a red-tailed hawk. In fact, this same nest last year was used by ravens which produced several chicks – but it looks like the great horned owls got to it first this year!

Notice that these chicks are wide awake during the day, despite the presumption that all owls are strictly nocturnal. While some owls are only active at night, great horned owls are known to be somewhat active and can even be seen flying around during the daytime, although they are most active and hunting at night. Stay tuned for possible additional photos of the branchlings moving away from the nest soon!